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  #1  
Old 22 Dec 2009
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE5BL1MR.htm

NOUAKCHOTT, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Mauritanian security forces have arrested a Malian suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of an Italian couple near the Mali-Mauritania border, security sources said on Tuesday.
Abderrahmane Ben Meddou, who was arrested in Mauritania's eastern town of Kobenni on Monday, is suspected of having helped identify and follow the Italian couple in return for promises of thousands of dollars, Mauritania's news agency reported.
The kidnapping is the latest in a string of seizures of foreigners by armed groups in West Africa, some of whom have links with al Qaeda's North African wing, AQIM.
"He was arrested in Kobenni by the gendarmes," a security source told Reuters, referring to the eastern Mauritanian town near to where the Italian couple's bullet-riddled car was found abandoned on Saturday.
The Malian is currently being questioned by the authorities in the capital, Nouakchott, the security sources added.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping but Italy said it is using all its political and diplomatic channels to try to secure the release of the couple.
Citing intelligence sources, Mauritania's AMI news agency said Ben Meddou has told officials that he had found and followed potential hostages in return for a promise of 10 million CFA francs ($21,810) at the end of the operation.
It was not immediately clear who Ben Meddou was working for but local media reports suggested the Italians, and three Spaniards taken last month in Mauritania, were kidnapped on the orders of various factions of AQIM.
Analysts and diplomats suspect the Italian couple have been taken into Mali's remote north, where other foreigners, including the Spaniards and a Frenchman al Qaeda says it is also holding, are believed to be.
Rather than carrying out kidnappings themselves, Islamists in the region are believed to rely on local gangs, generally involved in the smuggling of cigarettes, weapons, drugs and people, to seize foreigners who are then passed on to them.
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Old 23 Dec 2009
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Interesting article from RFI about the secret negotiatons to free the hostages.
Quote:
Negotiations have started to release the four European hostages, including French kidnapped in northern Mali. RFI correspondent in Mali, Serge Daniel was able to meet the key man of all ongoing negotiations. Three Spaniards and French were abducted late November 2009, operations claimed by the Maghreb branch of al-Qaeda.
Des tractations secrètes pour libérer les otages européens

Google translation

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Ulrich
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  #3  
Old 23 Dec 2009
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i think the end is near....

i hope the best for the hostages and have good christmans
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Old 24 Dec 2009
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The mauritanian Imam Abu Hanna has written an handbook for AQMI how to handle hostages.
Quote:
The fate of the Spanish hostages by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI) depends largely on one man: Rahman, Abu Hanna, the judge called the desert, a religious leader that there is only one photograph which appears in videos, hidden under his turban while launching incendiary harangues about the need to create a new Caliphate and an Islamic government in the Maghreb. Speeches that always end with the tagline: "I pray to Allah to die for jihad".
El Pais - En manos del juez del desierto

Gogoonisch - English

Also interesting: The involvement of an mauritanien police-officer at the abduction.
Quote:
Stop the Security element in the Mauritanian Mauritanian gendarmerie sergeant first suspect his involvement in the kidnapping of Spanish nationals in Mauritania and Mali, and two other part of the campaign carried out by the Mauritanian security to pursue al-Qaeda in the desert who are accustomed to in recent kidnapping ·
Djazair - إيقاف ضابط برتبة رقيب أول بالدرك الموريتاني متورط في عملية اختطاف الرهائن الإسبان

Gogoonisch - English

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Ulrich
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Old 26 Dec 2009
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Quote:
BAMAKO, Dec 26 (Reuters) - Malian authorities are making progress in negotiations with al Qaeda gunmen holding three Spaniards and a Frenchman hostage, a source close to the talks said on Saturday.
Reuters - Mali progressing in talks to free hostages -source
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Old 28 Dec 2009
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News about Spanish and Italien Hostages.


L'Expression Edition OnLine - Al Qaîda pose ses conditions

Al Qaeda poses its conditions

and

Un jefe tuareg de Malí negocia el rescate · ELPAÍS.com

A Malian Tuareg leader negotiates the rescue

and


Saharamedias

Quote:
Adopted al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, the kidnapping of Italian couple, which took place a few days ago on a road south-eastern Mauritania.



Adoption came in an audio message, dated 27 December (December 2009), in which the recording purported to be official media in the organization Salah أبومحمد, confirming the responsibility for the kidnapping.

He connected the abduction of what he called (crimes committed by the Italian government in Afghanistan and Iraq).

The certificates stated that the initial kidnapping of the couple were in the same way that Spaniards kidnapped by 3 at the end of November (November) in the other side of the country in the process adopted by the organization itself.

For its part, the Mauritanian government has sought to reassure foreigners, saying it had taken all necessary measures to ensure their security.

A security source said that the Italians, who have been missing since Friday night at the Coppini Mauritania (abducted by an armed group on the likely). He added that Sergio Siclla, a retired at the age of sixty and his wife Velomini Kabore (39 years), the Italian who comes from Burkina Faso (who were heading to Burkina Faso, a small bus is registered in Italy).

The kidnapping of the Italians after 3 weeks of the kidnapping of 3 Spaniards on the coastal road between Nouadhibou and Nouakchott (north west), the process adopted by the al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Pests and certificates travelers collected source close to the local authorities that the hijackers appeared suddenly at night on the road. They fired in the air and on the wheels of the vehicle stops for passengers before they took people only leave the car including.

The eastern Mali since 2008 haven for Islamic groups, meant to kidnappings of Westerners. It is likely that the three Spaniards who were kidnapped in November 29 (November) in the north-western Mauritania exist in this country, in addition to Gaul was kidnapped in 26 of the same month in the town of Menaka northern Mali.

The Al Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb in the last two years a series of bloody attacks in Mauritania, including the killing of 4 Frenchmen at the end of 2007, in suspended (250 km east of Nouakchott) and the U.S. in June (June) in the capital.
Regards

Ulrich
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Old 28 Dec 2009
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The statement in arabic (audio only)

Statement - audio

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